I wonder the same thing - sometimes I price Poly - becasue that is the one place we would like to stay that is non-DVC. The reg. rooms are always AT LEAST (usally more) $400. Do people really pay that ?????
Yes, people really pay that. We did, regularly, before we bought DVC. We always stayed at deluxe resorts, club level (BC, BW, or GF), and I can't remember a time that even with discounts (which we always found), our room ran much less that $300 a night, before taxes and resort fees. And we usually got either a suite or two rooms, because my DM often travels with us. So we were averaging a _minimum_ of $600 a night. That is why we bought into DVC.
This year (because we had developer points and banked points on the resale contract we bought) we're doing two six night stays in two bedroom villas and a five night stay in a one bedroom, plus we'll have points left over to bank. A conservative estimate of what we would have spent to do this is $8700. Plus, because of DVC perks, this year alone we'll have saved $300 on annual passes, $170 on internet charges, and something around $900 on golf. That's over $10,000 worth of value to us in one year. Now, admittedly, without DVC, we would probably have made two slightly longer trips instead of three trips, but it is still a lot of savings. I'm not even including the money we save on food in our calculations, but we are saving some because I cook breakfast for us every morning.
For our family, DVC is a fantastic value. We decided we needed a cheap vacation next month, so we booked that third vacation. Our friends are completely shocked that we consider WDW a cheap vacation, so we find ourselves explaining often that between our room being prepaid, our annual passes, and our 20% discount on food from the TiW, WDW is the cheapest vacation we can do right now. It really gives you a whole new perspective!
Thank you but no thank you. My husband now understands why it made sense to buy into DVC. 
Before we joined 
